December 1994 came.

At the same time, strong winds and rain and snow arrived. Although there is always a cold wind in winter in the castle, it is undoubtedly much better than the big ship of Durmstrang parked on the lake.

At least the castle has a hot hearth fire and thick walls.

The ghostly ship swayed in the storm, its black sails fluttering in the dark night sky.

But Durmstrang School is located in the cold north, and it is possible that they have long since adapted to the temperatures.

In his magical creature conservation class, Hagrid assigns an after-school assignment for them to take care of an animal called a whelk.

This animal is very ugly, with a thick gray protective layer, powerful legs that are constantly swinging wildly, a tail that constantly explodes and breathes fire, and their spines and suckers.

What disgusted the students the most was the nature of the snails: as long as they were in one pile, they would inevitably kill each other, leaving only one of the most powerful, which made it even more difficult to take care of the students.

Only ten of the large boxes of small fried snails that Hagrid had brought with him were now alive, and each one had grown into a two-meter-long monster.

Watching the students get a little injured and grab the exploded tail snails back into the box from the burned pumpkin seedling next to them, Hagrid said inadvertently, "It's a bit hard, but this thing is very useful." ”

......

One night.

Hermione suddenly rushed to the table, pulling Harry to leave.

She said excitedly, "Harry, I found out, come with me." ”

"What's wrong?" asked Harry.

"You'll know when you get there, I found it with a hard time. ”

Zhang Qiu shook his head helplessly and continued to have dinner with Astoria.

While Harry and Hermione were passing by the brightly lit library, Victor Krum was there again. Six or seven girls were hiding by the row of bookshelves next to them, looking at Krum, whispering to him about whether or not to ask him for an autograph. But when they saw Harry running away with his arm in tow, they were surprised to run out and ask Harry for an autograph.

Victor Krum also noticed Hermione, just seeing Harry beside her, and couldn't help but sigh.

Hermione dragged Harry down a hallway, and as they descended six floors, they were descending the marble staircase into the foyer below.

At the bottom of the stairs, she turned left and hurried towards a door.

It was a remote place, and Harry hadn't been here before.

He followed Hermione down a stone staircase, and it wasn't the dimly dark and gloomy passage he had imagined, like the one leading to Snape's underground classroom.

Instead, they came to a wide stone gallery, illuminated by torches and decorated with delightful drawings of all kinds of food.

One of the images is a huge silver bowl full of fruit.

Hermione stood in front of the picture of the large fruit bowl, her index finger sticking out, and gently scratching the big green pear. The pear squirmed, smiling silly, and suddenly stood out from the painting, twisting into a large green doorknob.

Hermione grabbed it and twisted it, and a door appeared on the wall.

Then she walked in, Harry following her.

He had already guessed where this was Hogwarts.

Inside the door was a large room with a high ceiling, as large as the auditorium above, surrounded by a stone wall lined with clean, glittering copper pots and basins, and a large brick fireplace at the other end of the room.

There were four long wooden tables in the room, and you walked into the kitchen inside. The tables were placed in exactly the same position as the tables of the four colleges in the auditorium above.

More than a hundred elves were busy working in the kitchen, and when they saw a wizard enter, they all smiled, bowed, and curtsy all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel with the Hogwarts emblem on it, and they wrapped it around their robes.

A small thing sped towards Harry from the center of the room, screaming as he ran, "Mr. Potter!"

But as the owner of the voice was about to pounce on Harry, the figure stopped abruptly, knowing that Mr. Potter had never liked to be too close to him.

Harry's feet that were about to be lifted were lowered, "Dobby." ”

Dobby said excitedly, "It's me, Dobby has been looking forward to seeing Mr. Potter again!"

Dobby's big green eyes were filled with tears of joy. He was exactly as he remembered Harry. The nose as slender as a pencil, the bat-like ears, and the long fingers and feet were still the same, but the clothes were very different.

When Dobby was working at the Malfoy family, he wore that dirty old pillowcase all year round.

Now, his outfit was the strangest combination Harry had ever seen, more exaggerated than the wizards who wanted to disguise themselves as Muggles at the World Cup.

It had a teapot thermos pinned to it a large number of colorful badges on its head, a horseshoe-patterned tie hanging from its bare chest, a pair of children's soccer shorts underneath, and two mismatched socks on its feet.

Hermione was taking a camera around taking pictures of the elves working in the kitchen.

Hermione said sympathetically, "I'm going to use these real work situations to show others how hard these house-elves work, and then our 'Games for the Prohibition of Cruel Abuse of Our Magical Creature Friends and the Improvement of Their Legal Status' will be joined." ”

Harry said, "You haven't given up yet. ”

Hermione had been pulling people around for a long time, but except for Malfoy, who was forced by Harry's obscenity to join, the others immediately hid away as soon as they heard about Hermione's elf rights and interests, and even George Fred, the two inventor brothers who studied new gadgets all day and then found someone to experiment with them, saw Hermione walking around.

Hermione said dissatisfiedly, "Look at them, preparing food for the teachers and students of Hogwarts three times a day, day after day, year after year. But there's no pay, it's so unfair!"

"Dobby, didn't you say Twilight was there, and where was she? I'm going to write an essay about her transformation of her two identities that might get the attention of the silent house-elves. ”

"Miss Granger, she's here, come with me. Dobitch hurriedly led the way.

Dobby stopped in front of the brick fireplace and pointed to Hermione.

"Twilight, look, Miss Granger!" he said.

Twinkle sat on a stool by the fire. Unlike Dobby, she wears clothes that are not casual at all, she wears a neat little skirt and short top, and a matching blue hat on her head, with two holes cut out to reveal her two large ears.

However, Dobby's outfit he loved and protected immaculately and was as good as new, while Sparkle didn't care what she was wearing, her crop blouse was covered in soup stains, and there was a burnt spot on her skirt.

"Hello, Twilight. Hermione said.

Her lips trembled, and she burst into tears, tears rolling out of her big brown eyes and onto her chest, her crying personality exactly like she had been in the Quidditch World Cup.

Hermione said with a headache, "Twinkle, don't cry." ”

But Twinkle cried even harder.

"If you cry again, I'll punish you for putting your arms in the fireplace to roast. Harry said.

Twinkle stopped crying and looked at Harry in fear.

......